1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display apparatus with a cooling means, for effectively discharging heat from an entire display panel.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In a typical flat panel display (FPD), a container is formed by sealing two substrates with a lateral wall standing therebetween, and having materials arranged within the container that allow for a desired image to be displayed. As multimedia have recently been developed, the importance of flat panel displays increases. Accordingly, various flat panel displays such as liquid crystal displays (LCD), plasma display panels (PDP), electron emission displays, etc. have been developed and put to practical use.
Particularly, an electron emission display employs an electron beam allowing a fluorescent material to emit light, similar to a cathode ray tube (CRT). Thus, the electron emission display has the desirable qualities of both a CRT and a flat panel display, which consumes low power and displays an image without contortion. Further, the electron emission display is expected to be a next generation display because it has a fast response time, high brightness, fine pitch, thinness, etc.
In general, an electron emission device uses a hot cathode or a cold cathode as an electron source. Examples of electron emission devices using a cold cathode are a field emitter array (FEA) type, a surface conduction emitter (SCE) type, a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) type, a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) type, and a ballistic electron surface emitting (BSE) type.
The electron emission display has a triode structure of a cathode electrode, an anode electrode and a gate electrode. In more detail, the cathode electrode generally used as a scan electrode is formed on a substrate. Additionally, an insulating layer formed with a hole and the gate electrode generally used as a data electrode are formed on the cathode electrode in sequence. An emitter is formed as the electron source within the hole to contact the cathode electrode.
In an electron emission display with this configuration, electrons emitted from the emitter are accelerated by a voltage applied between the cathode electrode and the anode electrode and collide with red, green and blue (RGB) fluorescent materials provided on the anode electrode, so that the fluorescent materials emit light, thereby displaying a predetermined image at a front region of the display panel.
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a conventional display apparatus, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line I-I′ of a non-exploded version of FIG. 1. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the conventional display apparatus 100 includes a display panel 120 having a first substrate 121 and a second substrate 122 which are spaced from each other. The display apparatus 100 also includes a heat discharging plate 130, a back cover 110 covering the heat discharging plate 130 and sides of the display panel 120, and a front cover 140 covering a front edge region of the display panel 120, the front cover being coupled to the sides of the back cover 110.
The display panel 120 includes the first substrate 121 from which electrons are emitted, and the second substrate 122 on which a predetermined image is displayed. The first substrate 121 and the second substrate 122 are spaced from each other, maintaining a vacuum state. A supporter 123 is provided between the first substrate 121 and the second substrate 122 to support the first and second substrates 121 and 122 and maintain the vacuum state.
The display panel 120 is connected with a data driver 124a to supply a data signal and a scan driver 124b to supply a scan signal. When supplying the signals to the display panel 120, the data and scan drivers 124a and 124b generate high temperatures due to the large amount of current, increasing the temperature of the entire display panel 120. The heat generated from the display panel 120 can be discharged through the heat discharging plate 130 provided in a rear of the display panel 120.
However, in the conventional display apparatus, the heat discharging plate is in contact with a limited portion of the display panel so that it does not optimally discharge heat from the whole display panel.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention, and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.